Internet sensation Lucas Cruikshank stars as Fred Figglehorn in
the new Nickelodeon live-action short-form comedy series "Fred: The
Show," which chronicles the character’s latest hilarious adventures
at home and in school. (Keith Munayn/Nickelodeon)

Internet sensation Lucas Cruikshank stars as Fred Figglehorn in
the new Nickelodeon live-action short-form comedy series "Fred: The
Show," which chronicles the character’s latest hilarious adventures
at home and in school. (Keith Munayn/Nickelodeon)

If all goes according to plan, Lucas Cruikshank will return from
California this spring to graduate with his Columbus Lakeview High
School classmates.

But only if this whole TV thing doesn't get in the way.

Cruikshank is spending his last semester of high school filming
the new Nickelodeon comedy series, "Fred: The Show," which features
his wildly successful Internet character Fred Figglehorn, the
squeaky-voiced 6-year-old with anger-management issues.

"I can't miss (graduation)," Cruikshank, 18, said in a phone
interview from the set. "I won't be working that much in May, so I
should be able to have those days off."

Cruikshank, who is finishing up his coursework online, headed to
Los Angeles in mid-December to begin work on the new live-action
series, which debuts with back-to-back 11-minute episodes at 7 p.m.
Monday.

After the premiere, the show will regularly air on Nickelodeon
(Time Warner Cable channels 32, 103, 1103) at 7 p.m. Fridays,
beginning this week.

Cruikshank's success with Fred is well-documented. He
created the character for a Halloween video and uploaded it to
a YouTube channel that he had started with two cousins. Fred was an
immediate success, which prompted Cruikshank to start a video
series and set up the Fred channel in April 2008.

By the next year, the channel had more than 1 million
subscribers, making it the first YouTube channel to do so, and was
the most-subscribed channel at the time.

Cruikshank introduced Fred to TV audiences through appearances
on Nickelodeon's "iCarly" series. Those led to two movies on the
network,
"Fred: The Movie" (September 2010) and "Fred: Night of the
Living Fred" (October 2011).

"I didn't know really what would happen with the movies," he
said. "The fans online have been so good and stuff, but I wasn't
sure if they would leave the computer for a different kind of
format. They did."

The new, short-form series builds on the movies, chronicling
Fred's latest adventures at home and in school.

In the first half of the premiere, "Evil Fred Part 1," several
of Fred's neighbors confront him after seeing him destroy their
property. Fred declares his innocence but no one believes him.

For Fred, there can only be one explanation: A portal to another
dimension has opened and an "evil" version of him is now creating
havoc in the neighborhood. The second episode wraps up the
storyline.

Cruikshank, who also serves as creator and executive producer on
the series, said he hadn't thought about a series until Nickelodeon
approached him. He was working on other projects, including the
filming of a different pilot for the network.

"This was a good opportunity," he said in revisiting Fred again.
"I know the fans will really enjoy it."

Nickelodeon has ordered 22 episodes, and a third movie also is
in the works. After that, Cruikshank said he's not sure. College
remains a possibility.

"I want to move out to L.A. to start pursuing my career," he
said. "I want to write for movies and TV and do more producing. It
would be cool to eventually write, produce and star in something. I
wouldn't mind trying out directing."